These days internet has become both cheap and very fast. We can download entire Windows ISO image files in a few minutes if not seconds. But when the high-speed fiber internet goes down, we all have to temporarily use the mobile network data over 4G or 5G networks by creating an ad-hoc hotspot. While the mobile data cannot compete with the speeds offered by fiber-net, it is really good for emergency situations. The mobile data is also very expensive compared to a wired internet connection.
This is why when we are using a mobile data internet connection, we should keep an eye on how and which of the programs is using the mobile data. For this, we can use an open-source application called OpenNetMeter. This application is beautifully designed and shows everything we need to know about our internet data usage on any Windows PC.
OpenNetMeter needs Microsoft .NET 5.0 Desktop Runtime which needs to be installed on your Windows computer before it can be used. OpenNetMeter itself does not need any installation and we can launch it after decompressing its files from the downloaded ZIP archive.
OpenNetMeter has a tabbed user interface. In the first tab, we can see a summary of how the internet bandwidth is being used. It shows a graph of download and upload speeds along with the total data downloaded or uploaded. In the second tab, we can see details of internet usage related to a network adapter. The network adapter could be a wired or wireless adapter. It shows the name of the process and how much data it has received or sent. We can also reset all the meter readings or data statistics by clicking on the Reset button.
When we minimize the OpenNetMeter window to the system tray, we can see these statistics by just hovering the mouse cursor over its system tray icon. It is much more convenient way to find out how much data we have consumed and whether the internet connection is responsive or not.
You can download OpenNetMeter from https://github.com/Ashfaaq18/OpenNetMeter.